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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

In Our Commercial Time

12 May, 1999 - 00:00

By Klara GUDZYK, The Day
The mass media more and more often use a hitherto unknown phrase, "the
country's religious market."It sounds utterly blasphemous, for the word
"market" is connected with buying, selling, and other commercial operations,
meaning a church would have to be either the active subject or, far worse,
object of commerce.

Whence came this widespread ignominious term worthy of the most malicious
atheists? Does it have any foundation? For as long ago as 2000 years, as
the New Testament says, the moneylenders were cast out of the Temple.

Unfortunately, we have quite enough evidence today that the use of such
expressions connected with the church's participation in our social life
is, to put it mildly, not so groundless. This, first of all, logically
refers to Orthodoxy, given the existing schism and the three squabbling
churches. They are at war or, at best, in competition with one another,
competing for congregations, church buildings, historic shrines, and for
societal dominance, as well as for the favor of politicians or the new
rich i.e., those with power or money. The government at all levels "sells"
its favor to a certain church: it immediately registers some communities
and denies legitimate registration to others, frantically promotes the
restitution of church property, and invites the people of only one church
to take honorary seats at meetings and rallies. What the authorities get
in return is the main thing for them: electoral support. They also receive
church awards, as if the latter had been instituted specially for those
who have money and power. How many winners of all those church awards,
men and women too "transparent" for society, do we now have! Clearly, churches,
like all of us and like never before, need funds - for the restoration
and construction of church buildings, development of clerical education,
and aid to the needy. But does money really "not smell," as pagan Roman
Emperor Vespasian once cynically said? One thing, however, is certain:
such "commerce" sooner or later besmirches the reputation of any church
and its public image. In a bitter letter to our editor, one of our readers
from Donetsk region even called the church in his village "a commercial
facility trading in funeral services."

Another arena for inter-church rivalry in peddling spiritual services
has arisen recently: the army. The idea of reviving the post of chaplains
at once provoked a conflict and triggered a feverish redistribution of
military units among the major churches along with a wave of granting awards
to the top brass. And a cautious proposal to make St. Andrew's Church a
national interfaith Christian center for the armed services encountered
unanimous indignation, especially since each denominations has plans of
its own concerning St. Andrew's Church.

All the world's churches do not coexist like this. Recently, a delegation
of clerical and lay representatives of Ukraine's three Orthodox denominations
had a chance (thanks to support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation) to
see how Germany's two largest church organizations, the Evangelical (Protestant)
and Roman Catholic, work in the military. We saw many interesting things
there, but let me only recall a few. The first thing that caught our eye
was that the leaders of both the Evangelical and Catholic chaplain services
met the Ukrainian delegation together. The Evangelical Church Bundeswehr
Department and the Catholic Episcopal Army Agency are housed in the same
building, have a joint general program of work, and they actually work
together. Among other things, they conduct ecumenical liturgies at military
units to which they invite all Christians as well as non-Christians (which
obviously cements unity in the units). All this in spite of the Roman Catholics
and Evangelical Protestant having very basic theological and ritual differences,
let alone the schism and protracted enmity of the past!

Incidentally, we also learned that no German churches bless the weapons,
cruisers, submarines, tanks, fighters, or other military hardware, as is
the case with some Orthodox churches. The German clergy also does not take
official part in such a purely military act as taking the oath of allegiance.
Their army pastors are engaged only in shepherding the men's souls. The
rest is left to Caesar.

 

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